Fumetti neri

Fumetti Neri is a subgenre of comics born in Italy with the Diabolik character.

The heroes of fumetti neri [literally black comics] are more anti-hero or villain than genuine hero. Diabolik itself was very loosely based on the French Fantômas character. The other heroes in these comics were all inspired on Diabolik and often have a K in their names.

We have :

Kriminal by Magnus and Max Bunker with a more violent variation of Diabolik.

Sandro Angiolini (1920 - 1985)

In 1966 he was the first to illustrate one of Italy's most important adult comics, 'Isabella', written by Renzo Barbieri and Giorgio Cavedon. He was also involved in the creation of Goldrake, Vartan, Una, Belzeba and La Poliziotta. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandro_Angiolini [Aug 2005]

Fotoromanzo and cineromanzo

A subgenre of comics in which the story is told not by drawings, but by photos. This kind of graphic storytelling is tipically Italian, in the sense that it reached its top popularity in Italian weeklies such as “Grand Hotel” and “Bolero Film” that, in in the late 1940’s, sold by million copies and still sell well

The famous film “The White Sheyk” by Federico Fellini deals with this specific genre of “fumetti”. The “Fotoromanzo” (Photonovel), as it is called in Italian, became popular also in France, Spain and Latin America; in the USA it was never much appreciated.

Magnus and Bunker

Born in Bologna in 1939, Roberto Raviola has lived all his life in this city. He started his career and his association with Max Bunker in 1964 with the series Kriminal. He uses the pseudonym Magnus, derived from the Latin saying Magnus Pictor Fecit. During the 1960s he created series like Satanik (1964), Dennis Cobb, Gesebel (1966) and Maxmagnus (1968).

Danger: Diabolik (1968) - Mario Bava

Danger: Diabolik (1968) - Dubbed in English - Mario Bava [Amazon US]
Master criminal Diabolik's got it all. He's got a black leather suit and ski mask, a pair of Jaguar XKEs, gadgets galore, an underground headquarters, and of course the ravishing Eva (played by Sixties Euro-hottie Marisa Mell). Together, the two of them pull off daring capers, staying a step or two ahead of the police, the government and rival mobsters all the while. Think the Sixties Batman TV series, James Bond, Barbarella, Matt Helm, and even a bit of Austin Powers for this distinctly Sixties crime romp. Director Mario Bava, as usual, made the most out of a less-than-lavish budget, with wild sets, an Ennio Morricone score, striking photography, and a psychedelic-soaked feel all the way around, with Bava's trademark camera work making it a visual delight in many scenes. Terry-Thomas comes in as a bumbling government official (the scene where his press conference is disrupted by Diabolik's "exhilarating gas" is a classic). It's all very tongue-in-cheek fun, based as it is on a comic book from the period. John Phillip Law, of course, is no better than he ever is as the rather fey master criminal, passing off his wooden performance as "stoic", but it works. Unlike contemporaries like Bond, though, Diabolik eschews the swinging Sixties life for a happily monogamous relationship with Eva (who wouldn't?). This is some goofy brain candy that's perfect for an evening of Sixties-retro fun. --Jerry Renshaw

SAM BOT n°1, January 1973

Biancaneve

Around the time the European cinematic sex-and-horror boom was hitting full swing (check out Tombs and Tohill's Immoral Tales for an excellent overview), there was a corresponding boom in sleazy pulp digest-size sex-and-horror comics (fumetti, in Italian). These fumetti rivaled the movies in explicitness and intensity. Immoral Tales [pages 265-268] features a brief Appendix about them, and that's how I became interested.

I haven't had an easy time tracking any of these down, but my efforts have yielded some success. Because I've had to take whatever I could find, I haven't been able to collect exclusively in the original Italian. I also have Dutch and French versions (in Dutch they're called strip pockets, and in French they're called bandes dessinees [petit format]). I would assume there are also Spanish versions, though I haven't run across any yet. [note: Tiburon]

Alas, there's some confusing variation among these different language versions. Lucifera is Lucifera is Lucifera, all across the board. However, the Italian Biancaneve is the Dutch Erotische Vertellingen is the French Contes Malicieux. The numbering is often different, too. Erotische Vertellingen runs together an earlier and a later series of Biancaneve. Special supplementary issues in Italian might appear as regular numbers in the series in another language. I don't know if some Italian numbers are omitted in other versions, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Elvifrance
Elvifrance was a French comic book publisher, specializing in pocket sized publications, often translations from Italian fumetti.

Edited by Georges Bielec (October 21, 1936 - July 1993), it was founded in 1970 and owned by Giorgio Cavedon and Renzo Barbieri of Erregi. It ceased publication in 1992. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvifrance [Aug 2005]

Roberto Raviola

Born in Bologna in 1939, Roberto Raviola has lived all his life in this city. He started his career and his association with Max Bunker in 1964 with the series Kriminal. He uses the pseudonym Magnus, derived from the Latin saying Magnus Pictor Fecit. During the 1960s he created series like Satanik (1964), Dennis Cobb, Gesebel (1966) and Maxmagnus (1968).

In 1967 Magnus and Bunker started working on a new character: in May of 1969 Alan Ford came out. His use of black and white to create certain atmospheres launched a new comics genre called Black comics.

After leaving the T.N.T Group, Magnus began an association with Renzo Barbieri's publishing house. He devoted these years to research and the result was a revolution in the erotic comics genre. In 1974 Midnight of fire, Ten knights and a wizard, Vendetta Macumba, and The living skull came out. In the seventies he continued creating the long saga The Outlaws and in 1975 he started the Unknown series. In 1977 The Company of the Gallows series appeared.

During the eighties he created two heroines: Milady 3000 and Necron's Frieda Boher. Inspired by oriental literature, he created The 110 pills, Fiori di prugno in un vaso d'oro and The enchanted women. In 1989 Magnus began his long adventure in the creation of his big Tex - 223 plates in 7 years of work. In August 1991 he moved to Castel del Rio, near Bologna, where he spends his last years.
--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Raviola [Aug 2005]

The White Sheik (1952) -Federico Fellini

Amazon.com
Federico Fellini's solo-directing debut seems like a pure excursion into the director's extravagant imagination, but its comedy, alternately ethereal and tumultuous, is grounded in reality. A honeymooning clerk (Leopoldo Trieste) and his big-eyed bride (Brunella Bovo) make a package-tour pilgrimage to Rome to have an audience with the Pope. There are bureaucratic delays, and the couple become separated. The still-virginal husband falls in with prostitutes (including Giulietta Masina's Cabiria, later canonized in Fellini's most enduring masterpiece). The bride finds herself in the world of her favorite fantasy-figure, "the White Sheik"--the hero of the photographic comic books, or fumetti, eagerly followed by the Italian populace. It was Michelangelo Antonioni who proposed the fumetti as a ripe film subject, and the film's central episode--dominated by Alberto Sordi's preposterous fantasy-figure and the Mack Sennett-like production methods of the fumetti company--is the first tour de force of Fellini's spectacular career. --Richard T. Jameson --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition.

Description
Ivan Cavalli (Leopoldo Trieste) brings his new wife Wanda (Brunella Bovo) to Rome on the least romantic honeymoon in history—a rigid schedule of family meetings and audiences with the Pope. But Wanda, dreaming of the dashing hero of a photo-strip cartoon, drifts off in search of the White Sheik, thus setting off a slapstick comedy worthy of Chaplin. The style and themes which made Federico Fellini world famous are already apparent in this charming comedy (his first solo directorial effort), featuring such long-time collaborators as his wife, actress Giulietta Masina, and composer Nino Rota. --via Amazon.com